Malay Language For Official Use

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31304, 25 February 1967, Page 13

Malay Language For Official Use

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) KUALA LUMPUR, February 24.

The Malaysian Government announced yesterday that it would make Malay the country’s sole official language in September, but it took care to provide safeguards for the largely non-Malay-speaking Chinese and Indian Communities.

A draft language bill said that English, which currently shares the official status with Malay, would continue to be allowed in Parliament, the law courts and for other purposes decided by the Malaysian Head of State. The bill fulfils an article of the constitution providing for the establishment of Malay as the national language 10 years after Malayan independence in 1957. The Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, which joined the Malayan federation to form Malaysia in 1963, will be exempt from the Act until 1973.

The language bill coincided with the resignation of' the Home Affairs and Justice

I Minister, Tun Ismail Bin Abdul Rahman, who is number three in the Cabinet and has been a Minister for 12 years. Though Tun Ismail's resignation, on the grounds of illhealth, had been expected for some time, its tinjing was believed to be linked with the language issue.

Unconfirmed reports said that the Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, had privately agreed to make a Chinese representative Deputy Prime Minister when he steps down and is succeeded by his current Deputy, the Defence Minister, Tun Abdul Razak.